Puberty (6 page)

IT HAPPENED TO ME

For years I’ve read celebrity magazines full of super-slim, gorgeous people and thought, “I want to look like that.” The magazines poke fun at people when they put on weight. Two years ago, I started dieting to look like them. But recently I got worried because my periods hadn’t started. My doctor explained it could be because I was seriously underweight. I gave up dieting, and it was such a relief when my periods started recently.

Many fashion models have a BMI that is well below the recommended healthy range.

7 Your health

Eating disorders

Eating disorders can begin at any time in life, but often they start in puberty or the early teens. Eating disorders are not just about food and weight; they’re also about the way someone feels inside. Food becomes a problem when it is used to help people cope with difficult situations or feelings.

Who gets eating disorders?

People who develop eating disorders may be high achievers and may have issues with self-esteem. They can be perfectionists who try to do everything well and criticize or blame themselves for what they see as failures. They can also become obsessive, so, in their minds, food and weight become the main focus, and they think about them all the time. Eating disorders are most common among girls, but significant numbers of boys have eating disorders, too.

There are three main types of eating disorder.

Anorexia nervosa

People with anorexia have an intense fear of weight gain. Even when they are terribly underweight and skinny, they see themselves as fat. They try to control the amount they eat by skipping meals and eating very little or by making themselves sick if they feel they have eaten too much. They think about food and calories a lot and may weigh themselves very frequently.

Binge eating

Binge eating disorder is when someone eats huge amounts of food in a short space of time. Often they choose foods like chocolate bars or ice cream and then feel guilty and ashamed about bingeing. Binge eating can lead to someone becoming overweight or obese.

Bulimia nervosa

People with bulimia nervosa also think constantly about food, but they get into a cycle of binge eating, before
purging
, either by making themselves sick or by taking
laxatives
. Often they will feel guilty and ashamed after bingeing, but the purging alters their mood so they
can feel calm or happy, as if they are back in control again. Some do this occasionally, when they are under stress; for others, it is regular or even daily behavior.

An anorexic may push the food around their plate rather than eating it. They might also make excuses to take the food to their room, where they will dispose of it.

Eating disorders can be serious and dangerous or even life-threatening if not treated. Severe weight loss and lack of proper nutrition cause health problems including stunted growth, brittle bones, and a weak
immune system
. In girls, monthly periods may stop altogether.

Treatments

Experts believe that eating disorders are often a way of getting control over one area of life (weight gain) when everything else feels out of control. Treatments include nutrition; counseling, especially focusing on self-esteem (see page
42
); and, in more serious cases, a stay in a specialist clinic or hospital.

“It is estimated that there is one man for every 20 women with anorexia. The estimate is that there is one man for every 10 women with bulimia.”

National Eating Disorder Information Center, Canada

IT HAPPENED TO ME

When I was 13, I started putting on weight. It didn’t feel right and when the P.E. teacher teased me for being a bit chubby, I decided to go on a diet. At first I just skipped breakfast and threw my lunch away. My friends said I was looking slimmer and that made me diet even more. I started hiding what I was doing. I think that was when it got bad, and I started to need help. Eventually my mom noticed and persuaded me to see my doctor. I’m now trying to eat a balanced, healthy diet and not obsess about weight so much.

Jessica, 14

Adolescence and mental health

Some young people experience different forms of behavior disorders, such as anxiety disorder, or more rarely, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), and bipolar disorder. Some of these may appear at the same time as eating disorders.

Anxiety disorder

Anxiety often occurs without a particular trigger. A certain amount of anxiety may be a normal reaction to stress. It may help a person to deal with a difficult situation—for example, exams at school—by prompting him or her to cope with it. When anxiety becomes excessive, it is an anxiety disorder.

Anxiety disorder affects young people by making them feel fearful or worried all of the time. They often miss school because of physical symptoms, such as frequent headaches and stomach aches. Inside, they may be constantly worried, either generally or by something in particular such as the fear of being separated from parents or fear about developing friendships at school.

OCD

OCD takes many different forms, but it usually involves obsessive thoughts or behavior, such as washing hands compulsively or putting things into a strict tidy order. When someone has OCD, they feel they must perform these “rituals” to stop bad things from happening. It is important to try and break the cycle because thinking about or performing repetitive rituals makes the OCD stronger. Resisting—however hard—weakens it.

The upheavals of puberty involve changes in the brain that may contribute to behavior disorders.

Bipolar disorder

Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive disorder, is usually indicated by someone having very extreme moods. They can appear manically overexcited or, in contrast, very
depressed; they may even show symptoms of both at once. These episodes are usually separated by “normal” moods. Extreme manic episodes can sometimes lead to symptoms such as delusions and hallucinations.

Bipolar disorder usually starts in adolescence or early adulthood, particularly for girls. Boys are more prone than girls to develop bipolar disorder before puberty, but also develop it as teenagers.

Treatment for all these kinds of disorders is often counseling, which aims to get to the root causes of the problem. But in some cases, doctors may prescribe medications which can help those with the disorders to get through difficult times.

Why do I feel so anxious?

Dear Agony Aunt,
Lately I’ve been feeling really anxious and stressed, and I don’t know why. It’s not about anything in particular. I have trouble sleeping at night, and when I do, I have nightmares. My heart pounds at the smallest thing, and I feel like something terrible is going to happen. I can’t concentrate at school, and I keep snapping at my friends. How can I feel less anxious when I don’t even know what I’m anxious about?
Cristian, 14

Dear Cristian
,
Anxiety can affect your day-to-day life and be very upsetting. However, there are ways to deal with it. Look at your diet and exercise
—
healthy foods, regular meals, and exercise will improve your overall health and well-being. Find relaxation techniques
—
for example, you could go for a walk, listen to some favorite music, or play football with a friend. Talk to someone about your feelings and see if you can find a solution. Think positive
—
you may find it hard at first, but try it for just a few days, and you will find yourself not only more relaxed, but perhaps even more energetic. Hopefully these tips can help ease some of your stress. If you continue to suffer from serious anxiety, you should consider visiting your doctor, who may recommend counseling or medication
.

“Puberty may have an impact on areas of the brain that contribute to bipolar disorder or schizophrenia in youth, according to a study … The findings add to the evidence that adolescence is a critical period of vulnerability for the development of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.”

Science Daily
,

December 10, 2007

Bottling up painful feelings can lead to sickness, but support can help you through difficult times.

Stress and depression

Feeling low some of the time is normal, especially during puberty, when hormones are affecting not just your body but also the way you feel. However, although it’s normal to feel down some of the time, you shouldn’t have to feel down all the time—and if you do, you should seek help from others.

IT HAPPENED TO ME

When I was 12, we moved, and I found it hard to make new friends. Then I started getting bullied at school. I got more and more depressed. In the end, I confided in my teacher. He told me about a mental health project where I could meet and talk to other young people who are going through the same sort of problems as me. We do things like art and media filming and sometimes we just chat about how we are feeling. It really has helped me to talk to people and I’ve made some good friends, too.

Nicolas, 14

Coping with problems

As you approach your teens, it is normal to start wanting more control over your own life, yet things are happening to you that you can’t change or stop. Events can also make you feel you have no say over your life. For example, imagine that your parents divorce and the family is split up or that you lose someone close to you, such as a grandparent, through a death. Problems with friends, bullying, and any form of abuse (which means someone is behaving toward you in ways that make you uncomfortable or unhappy) can also affect your
self-esteem and well-being (see page
42
). Even without these problems, all the changes you go through as you move from being a young person to an adult can be stressful and make you feel confused about who you are or that you are not “good enough.” Feeling we are not in control of what happens to us—at any stage in our life—can make us feel insecure and unhappy.